The Kinematograph.

Hastings Standard, Issue 491, 2 December 1897, Page 2

The Kinematograph.

A good Kinematograph, with novel views, is the key to the taste of theatre going public for the present at any raie. One feels in touch and sympathy with the seemingly living and palpable pictures, and the most unimaginative persons in an audience are appealed to and for the moment lifted out of themselves and their hum-drum existence to be placed down in the midst of the bewildering, thunderous traffic of Piccadilly, to be brought face to face, almost flesh to fiesh, with the tented Arabs in the desert or to find themselves on the illimitable seas with the sense of infinite restfulness and peace w r hich the great motherful oceau inspires. Last night a well-fiiled house greeted the rise of the curtain and the appearance o£ Mr W. M'Kenzie, who sang in his usual humorous manner " Simon the Cellerar," and in response to an encore " Father O'Flyn," which he rendered with an oily brogue that w r ould have done credit to the County Cork. Miss Jessie Glover's recitation, " An Amateur Eider," was received with the loud applause which her dramatic ability always deserve?. A duet, " Very Suspicious," between Mr McKenzie and Miss Glover belongs to the old school of comic singing, but the audience were pleased with their efforts. The Kinematograph views were wonderfully successful. The scene of the Arabs descending the pyramids was most realistic. A Spanish bull fight was interesting though revolting, notwithstanding which the audience insisted on a repetition. The Czar's reception in Paris was also a good scene. An episode in the recent American Presidential election where one of the horses harnessed to Mr McKinley's carriage falls on a tram line causing the stoppage of the carriage was a splendid reproduction. Artillery practice, Piccadilly traffic, and motor cars were also very distinct, as was also a sea-scape with the waves dashing themselves over rocks and flinging the spray into the air. Another movement which was rapturously received was the negotiation of a water jump in a military school. Iu one instance the horse and rider came a cropper which decided the success of the representation, and an encore was demanded. Lady acrobats, the arrival of the Boulogne steamer, a humorous representation styled " The Widow's Kiss," and a variety of other view's concluded the first part. The second was taken up with views of the Jubilee procession iu London, the most noticeable being the alighting of the Prince and Princess of Wales from a carriage, the Prince and Prir2ess being easily recognisable. A scene from " Faust up to Date " was a won derful exhibition of the powers of machine. This reproduction tasted some three minuted and was loudly applauded. Miss Lawrence acted as accompanist and Mr M'Kenzie as lecturer. The company appear in Napier to-night.